Boulder County leaders mull possible FasTracks delay until 2042

Correction: The total amount to complete the FasTracks program by 2019 is $6.7 billion, and the current shortfall is $2 billion.

Seven years after Boulder County voters approved a sales tax that promised to connect them to Denver via passenger train, residents are still paying -- 4 cents on every $10 purchase -- but the train may not chug into stations in Louisville, Boulder, Gunbarrel and Longmont for another three decades.

When the Regional Transportation District asked voters to support its FasTracks vision in 2004, backers promised that 119 miles of new rail would be built through nine corridors in the Denver-metro area by 2017, including the Northwest Rail Corridor, which would connect Denver's Union Station to Longmont via Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville and Boulder.

But an increase in construction costs and a decrease in sales tax revenues have left RTD $2 billion short of what it needs to complete the system in a time frame that's even close to the original promise. The revenue that has been generated has largely been used to complete FasTracks projects in the southern Denver-metro area, leaving Boulder County out in the cold.

Without additional funds, Boulder County residents won't be able to take a train ride to Denver until 2042.

Late last month, the RTD board voted not to ask voters for those additional funds this year, leaving some to wonder how long they'll have to wait.

"We have gotten the short end of the stick," said Boulder City Councilman Matt Appelbaum. "The reality is virtually all the funding went to the Denver metro area, and that really does need to change."

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Rebuilding trust

The RTD board decided not to put a tax on this year's ballot after several polls showed that it would be a struggle to get voter support this year. The board members say they'll consider whether the climate is better for passing a sales tax increase in 2012. If it does, RTD will have some work to do to convince Boulder County voters that RTD will deliver what's promised this time around.

"Clearly, through our actions, we need to rebuild trust in our ability to meet our commitments," said John Tayer, who represents western Boulder County on the RTD board. "We're making progress towards meeting those commitments, and I hope the public will now come to appreciate that we are a reliable agency."

Appelbaum said he would need to see some guarantees from RTD before he'd support another tax increase. In all the possible scenarios laid out by RTD now, the Northwest Rail Corridor is always the last to be constructed. But Appelbaum said he thinks there's another oft-forgotten promise in the FasTracks plan that he believes should be prioritized in any new FasTracks tax before the rail: a bus rapid transit system on U.S. 36.

When voters approved FasTracks, part of the projected revenue was earmarked to build new stations and new park-n-rides along U.S. 36. FasTracks also promised to finance 25 percent of an extension of an HOV lane all the way into Boulder.

"Bus rapid transit is by far the most important thing to us; in fact, it's critical," Appelbaum said. "I couldn't support a new FasTracks tax unless there was a guaranteed solution to U.S. 36. (Bus rapid transit) has to be completed in a timely manner."

Appelbaum would like a promise that the bus rapid transit project will be prioritized if revenue from a new sales tax again falls short of what's needed to complete FasTracks.

Backing the bus

Bob Greenlee, a Camera columnist and former Republican mayor of Boulder, agrees with Appelbaum that a better bus system is the more important element to Boulder. In fact, Greenlee said another tax shouldn't be put on the ballot until the original FasTracks plan is re-evaluated.

"I think this whole plan was ill-conceived from the beginning with regards to the Northwest Rail," he said. "To me, it isn't so much whether voters want to complete the plan that they supposedly agreed to in the beginning, but whether it's prudent to complete the plan at all."

Greenlee said he thinks the train connection to Boulder County never made sense, though he supports improvements to the bus service.

"I would have preferred to see more emphasis on the bus rapid transit program," he said. "That's much more useful."

Train station development

Both Boulder and Louisville have made investments in land near the train tracks that could serve as commercial transit hubs to people getting on and off trains. But mayors of both cities say the investments won't be lost if train stations aren't built for another 30 years.

In 2008, Louisville spent $1.5 million for an almost-one-acre spot at 637 Front St. that used to be home to the old post office. The idea was to provide parking and commercial development to serve the future whistle stop. But Mayor Chuck Sisk said the property, which now has two commercial tenants, will be useful regardless as Louisville grows.

"I have no qualms whatsoever about the way in which it's being utilized," he said. "It will give Louisville citizens a number of options in the future."

Boulder also has plans to develop a site near the intersection of 30th and Pearl streets near the railroad called "Boulder Junction." The latest plans for the area, presented to the city's Planning Board last month, call for a hotel, a parking garage and an underground bus station. The original concept also called for incorporating the new train station, but Mayor Susan Osborne says Boulder Junction will thrive with or without the station.

"It'll be a regional bus hub and it's going to be a great place for people to live who want to have the easiest commute in the world if they commute to Broomfield or Denver," she said. "I think it stands alone."

Building steam

Osborne and Sisk also share a positive outlook on the prospects of RTD completing the Northwest Rail sooner rather than later. Sisk believes that county residents who may now feel short-changed will feel more supportive -- and more willing to pay more taxes -- as the project creeps north. He points to federal funding that's just been made available to put in the rail line from Union Station to Westminster, where the Northwest Rail will eventually continue on from.

"Our citizens will see, 'Yes, there is some action,'" he said. "People will see that something is really happening in exchange for the sales tax dollars that they're paying."

Osborne expressed a similar sentiment.

"I know that, among the possibilities, one is that we wouldn't see the train here for 20 years," she said. "It is my very strong view that once the Gold Line is built to Westminster -- that's the tricky part, getting out of Union Station -- that people will see how the train is used and that it's utterly and absolutely possible to take the train to Union Station, and then it's going to get a life of its own and we'll find a way to make it happen."

Right time for a tax

Both of Boulder County's RTD board members -- Tayer and Lee Kemp, who represents the eastern part of the county -- say they support a tax increase, and they say they believe Denver metro voters, who already have their train lines in place, will support it, too. It just has to be the right year.

"Surprisingly, polls have demonstrated what we're hearing anecdotally: Folks who have the train are actually even more supportive of fully building out the systems because they see the advantage of the entire network and their ability to access all corners of the region," Tayer said.

For RTD to get a tax passed, the agency will have to rely on support from the business community to launch a campaign, Kemp said. In 2004, FasTracks advocates spent $3.5 million on the campaign, and the support just isn't there this year, according to polls.

"There is going to have to be private stakeholder involvement to be able to run a campaign," Kemp said. "And they need to feel that due diligence has been done to invest in a campaign."

Kemp said RTD has to be very careful about when it puts the measure on the ballot -- and he hopes next year may be the right time to ask for as much as a doubling of the current FastTracks sales tax. But, if it's not, it's best not to push it, he said.

"We're only going to get one shot at this," he said. "It's going to be a long time if we mess this up before we get another shot."

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